A thread devoted to Real Ales in Wales

Ignore my post no. 449 from May up there (just before that from diond -- the Coopers is in ale terms a total shithole normally I have to say though!) -- that hoped-fpr Swansea Alehouse project has gone horribly, down the plughole wrong I'm afraid

More another time when I can bear it

BUT!!!

In much better news, our marvellous Beer and Cider Festival (2016) here in Swansea will open at 5 pm today (Thursday 25th August) and festivaldeb, myself and all in Swansea CAMRA will welcome you all ...

We almost sold out of all our beer this year. At 5 pm on Friday we were mildly worried that sales/numbers of people were down on the Thursday to Friday period last year. Then after 6 pm on Friday, numbers and beer sales shot through the roof

I'm absolutely knackered now though. Today : a quiet walk to a quiet pub garden for paper reading in the sunshine over only a few leisurely pints. I've been dreaming of such a thing for days ...

I'm delighted -- we're really short of quality locals in central Swansea. We live very near the station and the city centre, and The Queens is very often our prime destination .... it's the only pub I'm aware of in South Wales that sells Old Peculier as a standard (see link above) and I don't remember ever having had a bad pint of it in ten years. It was withdrawn temporarily a while ago when Theakstons had a yeast infection problem at the brewery. So rather than sell it substandard, Gary replaced it for a bit with equally well kept Fullers ESB -- meh, you may say, especially if you've spent time in Fulllers-domonated London, but ESB is ultra rare here, a cracking pint at it's best, and far better than Pride!

PoTY award thoroughly deserved! The Queens won by a landslide at our voting meeting on Monday (27th Feb). It hadn't won since 2008 (although it went very close in several years' votes since then) and IMO it was well overdue again, especially given how much it's improved from an already high standard ....

New and interesting pub planned for the summer here in Swansea. Very near The Queens Hotel, in fact -- the new place will be on the Marina, at a cracking waterside site, and just round the corner from the Q .

Looking forward, so long as they really do end up including some trad real ale along with the hipster craft/keg stuff (I like the idea of catching Cloudwater, etc. down here though )

And lastly, again for those who know Swansea, the old and long closed Adam and Eve** (top of the High Street, very near the station) will at last be reopening tomorroh!!! (Friday 3rd March, 6 pm) under its new name, The Last Resort.

**Gone since 2010 ....

The Adam amd Eve's replacement is going to be cracking! It certainly was when it opened temporarily as an Xmas popup pub for a few weekends in late November and December. We know the staff and we know they'll pick good beers ..... and bands ... about fucking time we had an alternative-friendly pub in Swansea!

Plus even more local to us than The Queens ... festivaldeb works round the corner, literally, and my (direct to centre) bus after work can drop me at the station, literally 3 minutes walk away ... good job it'll only be opening on evenings, and only near the weekend for now!

(Although they plan to increase the number of their opening days, and increase their hours, as things progress).

On a slightly more negative note, I can't bloody wait until the Six Nations is over. This is purely a beer based point, because I support Wales in their matches** and I really get off on the pub atmosphere during the televised action.

**Wales in the rugby, England in the football has been my rule for over 30 years ...

But!!! Almost all I can see are the poorer, most common Welsh beers from the bogstandard get-their-beers-everywhere breweries in Wales. Or scarcely different variants sold under gimmicky rugby themed names.. Far fewer beers from micros or from small scale independents, not even the smaller Welsh breweries, some of which are excellent.

And I wonder whether ale friendly pubs in Wales ever think about how much WELSH ale drinkers (not just those from over the Bristol Channel like me!) welcome unusual imports from exotic places such as ... OK, Bristol ...

Well some pubs here do think about non-Welsh beer as well as Welsh, the best of them, but not during the sodding Six Nations!

Belated report on our fest : everyone who gave us feedback during the fest had nothing but positive things to say about the fest and the (much improved/widened) choice of ales. Bands went down a storm too

But we were over ambitious. Visitor numbers and beer sales were significantly down on last year's

Most obvious explanation, we thought, was that the Bank Holiday weekend was the first w/e with consistently cracking weather throughout, since early July. So everyone headed for the beaches! Most of the local pubs were trading really badly (at least in the daytime) as well, our trade friends told us.

So criminally, we had to throw a lot of beer away during takedown on the Sunday ... this is the first time for at least five years that we've had to do this.
Although us workers tried to help (we're good like that!) by drinking plenty on the takedown day (and during the fest too )-- festivaldeb also grabbed two large leftover boxes of cider, one almost full, to take to FeralFest near Westbury (Wilts) the following weekend (2/3/4 Sept).

But ale won't keep as well as cider -- so much of the ale was wasted

We've got a fair bit of rethinking to do before next year's fest. We'll almost certainly have to reduce the order -- sadly.

We recomemend the above if you have some spare time and if you can get to Cardiff. Friday will have the best choice, although it will be busier. We'll definitely be there for a good chunk of Friday and possibly for a bit of Saturday too.

At Swansea many of us actually disagree with their approach of importing fewer beers from outside Wales than we do. Like us, they feature an excellent range of Welsh beers, but unlike us, at the expense of bringing in great beers rarely seen/available in Wales.

But that's a friendly disagreement really, they do a great job in Cardiff, and they will feature a guest region from outside -- Greater Manchester (wish they'd been able to find a few more from that great area though )